The announcement of early elections made this Monday by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, bursts in just as Ciudadanos tries to shape its return to the national political scene after the debacle that practically erased the party from the institutional map. That return, moreover, could materialize through a formula different from the one used so far.
This was advanced by the national Organization secretary of Ciudadanos, Mariana Boadella, in an interview with Europa Press granted just three days before Sánchez made public his intention to call elections for November 29.
Boadella confirms that the leadership of Cs keeps open the option of modifying its format of participation, presenting itself under other acronyms or joining forces with projects that seek to recompose the center space, among them Democracia 21, the initiative promoted by Miriam González.
"Nothing is ruled out at this moment," Boadella assured when asked about the possibility of a change of acronyms or even of name for the upcoming general elections.
The leader detailed that Ciudadanos maintains "conversations" and expressly pointed to Democracia 21 as one of the alternatives to study an alliance.
"Miriam is a very valid person and we like that option to join forces," she stated before confirming that the possibility of integration between both projects is open. "We are indeed open to joining, not to further divide the center," she maintained.
Sánchez's advance now compresses all timelines. When Boadella spoke with Europa Press, Democracia 21 had not even held its official presentation event, scheduled for October 10, and Cs had not yet finalized the name of its national candidate or the definitive formula with which it aspired to return to general elections.
When directly asked about the hypothesis that Sánchez would bring the elections forward to November 29 and leave both projects "caught off guard," Boadella admitted that the process was still in an initial phase.
"We are at the starting line of the race, so we will have to run a little more," she pointed out.
The leader herself acknowledged that elections in spring or summer would have offered much more leeway to consolidate that new project. "They would give us more time to better shape the project, that is clear," she acknowledged.
And in the eventuality that Sánchez ended up bringing forward the elections, as has finally happened, Boadella made clear the impact for Ciudadanos: "We need to accelerate a lot."
With the electoral date already set, Ciudadanos will have to resolve within a minimum timeframe some of the great uncertainties about its future, from the formula with which it will compete on November 29 to a possible alliance with Democracia 21 or the designation of who will lead that new project.
Boadella admitted that "everything is yet to be written" and that the contacts with Democracia 21 were still in a very preliminary phase.
"The intentions are on the table and nothing more," he explained, insisting that they first wanted to let the new party publicly announce its proposal and its program.
That calendar has now been disrupted. Ciudadanos no longer has the months it anticipated to rebuild the center space and will have to decide against the clock how it tries to return to Congress.
"We are reborn from the base"
Ciudadanos faces this new stage from a very different position than the one it occupied when it became a key force in Congress and in several regional governments.
Without national parliamentary representation, Boadella maintains that Cs retains "more than 400, almost 500 elected municipal officials" and has transformed into a fundamentally municipalist formation.
"We are reborn from the base, which is what we like to say, which is what we did not do at the beginning," explains the Secretary of Organization, who insists that Ciudadanos "is still a living party" after twenty years of trajectory.
The current objective does not necessarily involve reproducing the previous structure. Boadella assures that "nothing is ruled out" and even keeps the option of new acronyms or competition formulas open if they allow regrouping that political space.
The formation believes that there is a segment of voters who do not feel represented by the large blocs and that, according to Boadella, in many cases has opted for abstention or to support other alternatives "with their nose held."
Ciudadanos wants to address precisely that voter and recover its former role as a hinge.
"Hinges are needed to open the door," summarizes Boadella, convinced that a party does not need to be majority to influence policies and agreements.
Self-criticism and lessons from the past
This attempt at resurrection is accompanied by a certain self-criticism for the collapse suffered by Ciudadanos after having come to dispute a good part of the center-right space with the PP.
Boadella admits that the formation deviated from the purpose for which, in his opinion, it was born. "We all make mistakes and learn. And we have learned that lesson," he states.
The Secretary of Organization places the original utility of Cs in acting as a moderate force capable of conditioning majorities and reducing dependence on nationalist parties.
"We did not achieve that objective and lost the trust of the electorate," he acknowledges.
Now, the party claims to want to recover that profile through a "pragmatic" policy, away from the classic division between left and right and based, according to Boadella, on listening to experts, analyzing data, and seeking solutions that have already worked in other countries.